Reacher is one of the most formulaic shows on television. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; TV is supposed to be formulaic. Old procedurals like CSI and Law & Order all followed a very familiar case-of-the-week formula, and audiences have been tuning in for decades. Storytelling is built on formulas, so if you do something cool and fresh and different with the formula, it can work wonders.
Every season of Reacher, we know exactly what we’re getting. This hulking, unstoppable killing machine will arrive in a new town, run afoul of some local criminals, assemble a ragtag group of allies, uncover a sinister conspiracy, and take on the bad guys in a final showdown, all while protected from gunshot wounds and the laws of physics by a hefty suit of plot armor. Lee Child’s original books all follow that formula (with a couple of exceptions), and Amazon’s TV show has deftly translated it to the screen.
At the end of Reacher‘s latest season, Prime Video dropped the entire first season of the show’s first spinoff as a kind of dessert course. Neagley caught up with Reacher’s one and only recurring ally as she investigated the mysterious death of her childhood friend and ended up stumbling into a creepy cult.
As Neagley assembled a crew, uncovered a conspiracy, and took on the bad guys in a plot-armored climactic battle, that first season stuck to the Reacher formula pretty closely. It followed all the rules, hit all the expected beats, and provided all the expected thrills. But Neagley‘s second season, which was promptly greenlit by Amazon following the spinoff’s success, is breaking all the rules. We don’t know many details about Neagley season 2 yet, but it’s already throwing the formula out the window.
Neagley Season 2 Looks Like It’s Bringing Back The Same Team Members
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Reacher famously introduces a whole new supporting cast in every season. Reacher drifts into a new town, gets drawn into a new criminal conspiracy, and makes a bunch of new friends. There’s usually a new love interest, a partner from local law enforcement, a rival from local law enforcement, some kind of tech person, and the comic relief. Sometimes, they mix and match those archetypes — in season 1, the love interest and the cop were the same person; in season 4, the tech guy and the comic relief were the same person — but it hardly ever deviates from those established types.
Neagley assembled its own band of misfits around the title character: a local cop, a plucky assistant, and a troubled teen with street smarts. But in season 2, it’s looking like all those supporting characters will be back. At the end of each season of Reacher, Reacher bids farewell to his new acquaintances and they move on with their lives. But at the end of Neagley season 1, Neagley is still working with her established crew, so we’ll probably see them all come back in season 2.
Neagley Will Have The Same Love Interest In Season 2
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Reacher has a new romantic interest in every season. In every single season, he meets a beautiful woman who could be “the one,” falls in love with her, and then never sees her again. In season 4, the love interest turned out to be the villain, but what happened to Roscoe, Dixon, and Duffy? He had a love connection with all of them, but he only stayed with them for as long as the villain-of-the-week was still alive.
In Neagley‘s first season, the title character’s investigation coincided with the arrival of a new romantic interest. But unlike Reacher, Neagley is keeping the love interest around for season 2. While Reacher is a rolling stone, Neagley may have already found her soulmate. Throughout the season, Neagley’s bitter resentment towards Detective Hudson Riley slowly morphed into affection, and they fell in love. Their romance was initially marred by Neagley’s fear of touch, but she’s gotten over that now.
Neagley‘s season 1 finale confirmed that Hudson is leaving the Chicago P.D. to work with Neagley at her private detective agency. This seemed to suggest that Neagley and Hudson are in a long-term relationship, and they’ll still be together when we catch up with them in season 2, which has never been the case for Reacher.
Neagley Season 2 Almost Certainly Won’t Be Based On A Book
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While every season of Reacher has adapted a specific Lee Child novel for the screen, Neagley‘s first season was an original story. Child is credited as the source author, because he created the Frances Neagley character, but the plot itself was a fresh riff on Child’s established formula. While it hasn’t been confirmed, Neagley season 2 will almost certainly follow suit and tell a brand-new story not taken from the pages of Child’s books.
Neagley told a much darker, weirder, creepier story than any season of Reacher. Reacher has gotten pretty violent and twisted, but it’s never gotten so dark that a cult is stoning people to death and experimenting on runaway kids in their nefarious underground base. If Neagley season 2 is continuing in that oddball vein, then I say let the writers cook.
Neagley Season 2 Will Evolve Its Main Character
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Reacher famously doesn’t change. He’s the exact same person at the beginning of each season as he is at the end of it. There is no character development, because he doesn’t need to change; he’s emotionally healthy, his lifestyle doesn’t bother anyone (even if it is a bit strange), and he’s a righteous hero who fights injustice wherever he sees it. There is a comfort in watching this sweet-hearted mountain of a man stand up to bullies, but it’s not very dramatically satisfying to spend four seasons watching a character who never evolves.
Neagley, on the other hand, has already experienced some major character development in a single season. Season 1 was ostensibly the story of Neagley taking on a deadly cult, but it was really the story of Neagley overcoming her haphephobia. In the season finale, she shakes Reacher’s hand, indicating that she’s making huge improvements with touch and relationships. That character development is just getting started, and it’ll continue into season 2.
Neagley Season 2 Will Still Be Based In Chicago
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Reacher never stays in the same place for more than one season. He moves from town to town on a whim. He’ll take a bus to some obscure blues museum in the heart of the country, and end up stumbling into a conspiracy involving a corrupt mayor and a mafia hitman. Reacher has nowhere to call home; he likes to stay on the move, off the grid, with no ties to anyone or anything or any specific place.
But Neagley is different; she’s permanently based in Chicago, and the second season of her spinoff will surely stay there. At the end of season 1, Neagley got her old boss’ office and took over his detective agency. So, unlike Reacher, Neagley now has an indefinite base of operations in one particular city. There could be a mystery that draws her across the country — maybe an old friend in Louisiana dies under suspicious circumstances, and we’ll suddenly see Neagley riding an airboat through a swamp — but it seems more likely that Neagley will set up shop in Chicago.
We don’t know much about Neagley season 2, because it’s still in the early stages of development. But it’s already breaking all the rules and flouting the Reacher formula, so I’m already locked in.
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